Illus. 17.—Inlaid Walnut High
Chest of Drawers, 1733.
The lower drawer has a star inlaid between the pillars, and a star is inlaid upon each end of the case. The knobs at the top are inlaid with the star, and the middle knob ends in a carved flame.
J. S. was John Sherburne, whose son married the daughter of Colonel Warner. The legs of this chest were ruthlessly sawed off many years ago, in order that it might stand in a low-ceilinged room, and it is only in comparatively recent years that it has belonged to the branch of the family now owning the Warner house. A double moulding runs upon the frame around the drawers, and the original handles were probably small, of the type in Illustration [11], letter C.
Illus. 18.—Inlaid Walnut High
Chest of Drawers, about 1760.
A walnut high chest of a somewhat later type is shown in Illustration [18], belonging to Mrs. Rufus Woodward of Worcester. It is of walnut veneered upon pine, and the shells upon the upper and lower middle drawers are gilded, for they are, of course, carved from the pine beneath the veneer. The frame has the separated double moulding around the drawers. A row of light inlaying extends around each drawer, and in the three long drawers of the upper part the inlaying simulates the division into two drawers, which is carried out in the top drawers of both the upper and lower parts. The large handles and the fluted columns at the sides would indicate that this chest was made about 1760-1770.
Illustration [19] shows a “high-boy” and “low-boy” of walnut, owned by the writer. The drawers, it will be seen, lap over the frame. The “high-boy” is original in every respect except the ring handles, which are new, upon the drawers carved with the rising sun or fan design.
It was found in the attic of an old house, with the top separate from the lower part and every drawer out upon the floor, filled with seeds, rags, and—kittens, who, terrified by the invasion of the antique hunter, scurried from their resting-places, to the number of nine or ten, reminding one of Lowell’s lines in the “Biglow Papers”:—